Whether this … thing … you’re seeing above is a phone or a phablet is unknown, but we understand if you wish this patent, recently granted to Samsung, will never materialize. The patent has been granted for “the ornamental design for a mobile phone, as shown and described”, and we’re looking at a mobile device that seems to have a 21:9 aspect ratio for its screen, often referred to as Cinema Display in the TV industry.

There’s also an important note, before you jump to any conclusions based on the looks of the above device: “The broken lines immediately adjacent to the shaded areas, encompassing unshaded regions, represent the bounds of the claimed design while all other broken lines are directed to environment and are for illustrative purposes only; the broken lines form no part of the claimed design.”

However, there’s a bigger question here: will we see companies experiment with cinematic aspect ratios for content consumption in the future? More important, how would you like to have a phone with such a tall/wide aspect ratio? Could it be a multimedia-centric smartphone, and, if yes, would you use one?

Of course, owning a patent doesn’t necessarily mean (and, in most cases, doesn’t mean at all) that there will actually be a device, in the near future, taking advantage of/following the patent.

…and, all of a sudden, those “what comes after the iPhone 5″ parody mock-ups start making sense.